Lost impartialityhttp://www.hcn.org/issues/46.17/lost-impartiality
As a longtime supporter of High Country News, I was very disappointed that you chose to publish the biased and unsubstantiated “Lost in the Woods” by Claudine LoMonaco (HCN, 9/1/14).

LoMonaco uses clever buzzwords — “slick slide show and earnest manner,” “bright blue eyes,” “dysfunctional and ineffective,” “historical vendettas, personal grudges and political connections,” just to quote a few — to make her case, even though she fails numerous times to follow up with examples that support her statements.

She then uses numerous unfounded allegations about the Forest Service land managers in the Southwestern region, again without any solid documentation to support her allegations: “an agency backwater … resisting court-mandated conservation measures … groping for solutions,” ad nauseam.

LoMonaco, however, has no problem giving full voice and credibility to anyone who is willing to blast the Forest Service folks, taking their statements at face value and oftentimes hiding their identities by attributing the quotes and allegations to “an ex-Forest Service employee.”

I can understand that an author will push his or her personal agenda but am disappointed that the editor who reviewed this piece lost his journalistic impartiality and allowed this to go to publication as written. It does a real disservice to objective environmental journalism.

Dick Mangan Missoula, Montana

Ray Ring replies: The writer drew her information from an unusually wide range of sources, including former Forest Service employees, independent academics who are not associated with any interest group, conservative rural county politicians, successful businessmen, officials on other countries, and environmentalists — all forming a unified criticism of how the Forest Service handled this huge restoration project.

The fact is, more than five years after the stakeholders and the Forest Service came up with the idea for the 2.4 million-acre restoration project, and after more than two years of active Forest Service management, less than 3,000 acres have been treated, despite the crisis in the woods. Falling that short would be considered a failure if it occurred in a Fortune 500 company, or at the convenience store on the corner.

]]>No publisherLetter to the editor2014/10/13 03:05:00 GMT-6ArticleA needed hard linehttp://www.hcn.org/issues/44.2/a-needed-hard-line
In his article about the reconstruction of Green Mountain Lookout in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, Nathan Rice categorizes Wilderness Watch as "a small, hard-line Montana group" (HCN, 1/23/12, "The law, the lookout and the logging town"). That's like calling the Sierra Club "a California environmental group."

Wilderness Watch was founded in Missoula, Mont., and is still headquartered there. However, its members are spread across the U.S., and members of its board of directors live in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, California, Colorado and Minnesota.

Retired Forest Service Director of Recreation Bill Worf, who was instrumental in writing the policy and guidelines for "keeping Wilderness wild," founded Wilderness Watch to keep agencies accountable to the letter and intent of the Wilderness Act. Too often, agencies like the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service take shortcuts in managing wilderness by authorizing helicopters, chain saws and mechanized equipment for non-emergency activities like rebuilding dams, clearing trails or stocking fish. Wilderness Watch does take a "hard line" about these violations.

Maybe Mr. Rice and the folks trying to place the rebuilt lookout in the Glacier Peak Wilderness should read another article in the same issue of HCN about retired NPS historian Richard West Sellars and his approach to historical restorations.

Dick ManganMissoula, Montana

]]>No publisherGrowth & SustainabilityLetter to the editor2012/02/06 03:00:00 GMT-6ArticleFight fire with firehttp://www.hcn.org/issues/331/16601
Since most wildland firefighters in Montana are federal,
state or tribal employees, they can’t say or do anything that
might appear political. But as a retiree, I’m not bound by
those rules, and decided to let my fellow Montanans know where we
firefighters are really coming from.